The Creative Commons Attribution Licence

The Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC Attribution Licence) gives the community permission in advance to make use of water information, without having to directly contact the supplier of that information.

It allows people to share (copy and distribute) and remix or adapt the water information, provided they attribute the data owner as the copyright holder. However, they may not do this in a way that suggests the data owner endorses them or their use of the material. The CC Attribution Licence also stipulates that these conditions can be waived with special permission from the data owner.

The CC Attribution Licence is the least restrictive of the Creative Commons suite of licences and it is compatible with Australian copyright law. The Bureau of Meteorology recommends using the CC Attribution Licence for water information because it:

is a legally binding public notice about how an organisation's water information may be used

will provide a consistent and transparent legal framework for all water information resources

contains strong limitation of liability and warranty clauses to support the data owner

is an established de-facto international standard for licensing electronic information

is free and costs little or nothing to implement

requires attribution of the water information owner.

The CC Attribution Licence is compatible with Australian copyright law, and therefore none of the community's statutory rights, such as its right to fair dealing, are affected. For instance, water information may be used for private study without the permission of the copyright owner.

Using an organisation's information under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence

Where a data supplier has chosen to adopt the CC Attribution Licence, the Bureau has clearly associated that person and their data with the licence logo shown below:

By clicking on the licence logo, users can find the terms and conditions of the CC Attribution Licence.

The CC Attribution Licence requires that if you reuse the information you must give clear and prominent credit to the original author and any other parties that are required to be attributed. Our website shows the manner in which you must attribute each data supplier. For example, the South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources has requested that it be attributed as:

Our website also provides the contact details of water data suppliers who have chosen not to adopt the CC Attribution Licence. You should contact them directly to enquire about the terms and conditions of reuse of their information.

Licensing water information under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence

If you would like to license your data under the CC Attribution Licence, please email: regulations@bom.gov.au.